29 August 2017•Update: 30 August 2017
By Shadi Khan Saif
KABUL, Afghanistan
A suicide attack in downtown Kabul aimed at a private bank during rush hour on Tuesday killed five people and left eight others wounded, the Afghan Ministry of Interior said.
Najib Danish, deputy spokesman for the Interior Ministry, told Anadolu Agency two attackers were involved in the attack, one of whom blew himself up. The other was apprehended by security forces.
“Five people including a private security guard of the bank were killed and eight others were wounded in this suicide attack," he said.
A number of private banks and the U.S. Embassy are located near the site of the attack in the city’s Macroryan area.
No group has claimed responsibility for this attack aimed at the New Kabul Bank (NKB) – a private bank franchised to distribute salaries to public sector employees, including those associated with the security sector.
In a similar attack, up to 25 people were killed in the NKB’s regional branch in restive Helmand province on June 22.
Previously, NKB branches in Helmand’s provincial capital Lashkargah and in the southeastern Paktia province were attacked by the Taliban in February and June claiming seven and six lives respectively.
The latest attack comes only days after a group of pro-Daesh militants stormed a mosque in the city’s Khair Khana neighborhood, killing up to 40 people and leaving around 90 wounded.
